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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Edmund Wilson define ethics?

2. What is the social cost of violating the incest taboo?

3. How many billion people can the earth sustain, theoretically?

4. What does Wilson offer as evidence of cross-cultural epi-genetic rules?

5. What is critical to the development of culture, in Edmund Wilson's account?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does ethics come from, in E.O. Wilson's account?

2. In what way are epi-genetic rules cross-cultural?

3. What is the purpose of the social sciences, and how does Wilson distinguish the social sciences from the physical social sciences?

4. What are the two branches of anthropology Wilson describes, and what question does he say they both fail to answer?

5. What is the difference between nurturists and hereditarians in describing how culture evolves?

6. What does Wilson say the liberal arts should address?

7. What ethical perspective does Wilson call the Transcendental view?

8. How does Wilson describe the universality of art?

9. What is the consilient view of religious ethics?

10. How do social factors influence genetic distribution?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Are 'epi-genetic rules' really just another way of saying complex social factors that have to be experienced individually? Does Wilson really evade the complexity and individuality of experience and sensation and language use?

Essay Topic 2

How does the knowledge that EO Wilson lost sight in one eye in childhood and lost a substantial degree of his sense of hearing in adolescence affect his idea of consilience? How would you relate the physical challenges with the intellectual rigor of the scientist, and the vision of the social theorist?

Essay Topic 3

Is there a contradiction in how Wilson distinguishes between the social sciences and natural sciences, and yet argues for the overlap between all forms of knowledge? Is he saying that branches of knowledge are distinct, or not? Is he saying that all branches of knowledge are linked or not?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 712 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample